Something nice to mention here is that the leveling block crafting recipe takes a full soil canister in the backpack printer, but if you have that recipe active you can put a soil canister in the input slot no matter the fill level, and since I always have a soil canister on me while playing astroneer, having the leveling block recipe unlocked essentially gives an extra inventory slot if you just keep your soil canister in the recipe input slot. It's so convenient that leveling blocks are often one of the first recipes I unlock when starting a new world, even though I don't use the leveling blocks themselves!
The way I use it is that I flatten an area in the middle of where I want my base, then I don't use it anymore but instead move to the flattening tool and use that to make a flat area for my base.
My experience with the alignment mod so far is if you continuously have it activated, it still builds a true flat ramp. I only noticed that it follows the curviture when deactivated. So its a good trick and tip to flatten out small sections at a time. it will seem to blend together if you do it that way
Hey, hope you feel better soon. I like the awkward outros BTW - they make me laugh and there's too much insincerity and fake polish in this world - they're a refreshing contrast. FYI when using the alignment block in 'flatten' mode it will change to horizontal if you target close to your feet making it a really good way to create a gravity-level floor anywhere. The other block is to create a true flat surface from which you can start flattening from. It's hard to notice but practically always when you flatten if you get the light just right you see it's not quite perfectly flat. As you flatten more starting at different spots you start to see it doesn't line up quite right that gets worse and worse. True flat is unique in that it is PERFECTLY flat & you can start leveling from any spot and it will line up EXACTLY with everywhere else. It doesn't matter how much you extend it or from where. AFAIK there's only a few angles that like this (the 6 faces of the cube you described and the 45degree angles to them). The terrain blocks sole purpose is to create them (to extend from). Players used to spend a long time with trial an error flattening an area at slightly different angles to try and find true flat, then the devs gave us this making the game that much more playable to perfectionists everywhere! I think I learned most of that reading the wiki pages on those blocks. GL & keep up the good work! Also, sorry for writing a book... Maybe your throat will be better by the time you finish it...
Wow. Looks like you know much more than me despite my hour count lol. Thanks for the long comment, too btw. Feedback is crucial to me this early in the RU-vid journey. :-)
Just starting playing Astroneer. Haven't used these yet, but it sounds like this alignment mod is useful if you want to drill to the center of the planet. Without it it's possible to loose your orientation and "miss" the center. Hard to explain but imagine an arrow that goes through an apple just missing the center.... That's one thing that comes to my mind. Also I noticed that when I level terrain for my base I actually start building sort of a shelf that starts to float in the air on one end if it gets big enough. For me this is undesirable. I actually want my base somewhat flat following the slight curvature of the planet without the additional height build up... so I'll unlock it ASAP for my base building activities :)
@@worldclassjerk-epicgamer good point good point:) right now I went the other direction. I travelled to the very north of sylva and built a ramp above the clouds. There with the leveling block I built a flat balcony with a flat roof. On that roof I placed solar panels (upside down). Linked those to my home base with a train and now I have 24/7 power from these solars:). Not my idea though :) won't need RTGs too quickly :)
I always use the alignment mod. I use it to flatten out my base. I have also done the vertial like u did to make a wall but if you continue in a circle you can make a round wall then put a roof on it. Its never pefect. Id call it the imperfect true flat tool.
I honestly don't understand the reasoning to why they made the alignment tool like that. Sure having the drill align with the center of the planet is useful(maybe), but i feel like it would've made allot more sense if when holding down the flattening key, it would lock itself to the radius of the planet and maintain the radius as it manipulates terrain. Such that you will still make relativity flat platforms, but instead the wont just be giant ramps from other perspectives on planets.
Yeah but sometimes such changes can be breakers. Like old saves stop working or things like that. Sometimes the choices taken rely on engineering we don't really see on the surface... This comes from a software engineer :P
5 months late to this, but the way you described is exactly how the alignment mod works! He didn't show it in the video, but when you use the flatten mode, if you create terrain near your feet, or just generally under you, it makes the terrain flat tangent to the radius of the planet, like how you described. If you use the flatten mode to create terrain farther away from you or higher off the ground, it makes terrain normal to the radius of the planet, like he showed in the video, walls and the like
@@gavin5410 i feel like that's incorrect. if it did that continuously then we wouldn't need to keep resetting back every once in a while to keep "curving flatly". but we do need to keep resetting otherwise it does become a ramp eventually. i think the only difference of the alignment mod than simply holding ctrl with terrain tool is that the latter is only going to make something flat according to the polygon you sampled, but the alignment mod will make it flat relative to the curviture. at least thats what it plays like right now. that or it's broken i dunno.
I’ve been trying to make my base flat I don’t want any slants or anything I’ve been spending 3 hours already and I have to keep restarting because they aren’t going flat they are slanted
